Product Defect is the term assigned to consumer goods thought to be either flawed or harmful. Usually, they are swiftly removed from circulation. The designation comes strangely to mind in the wake of a sharp federal court ruling that a five-year-old boy and his father be freed from immigration police custody and allowed to return home to Minnesota. ICE had erred and erred badly. But the judge went far further. Basic human decency had been violated, he said, and the man to blame was a leader who knew only to lust for unbridled power. This is where human product defect comes into play. The leader in question is incapable of understanding the concept of decency. The flaw is at the core of who he is and always has been. It cannot even be called malice because it is intrinsic. He lacks morality and conscience because his self-involved being never absorbed what should be an essential part of character. He should be removed from shelves not in response to his reactionary policies but because he poisons the commonweal. A five-year-old would know to behave more generously toward friends and enemies alike. But not this flawed adult, and the broken beat goes on.